


Office Decoration

by guineapiggie



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Tree, F/M, Rebelcaptain Secret Santa, and being buried underneath one idek, in which jyn accidentally assaults her boss' legal counsel with a pine tree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28428717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineapiggie/pseuds/guineapiggie
Summary: Cassian didn’t think there were a lot of ways to surprise him with violence anymore.Until he was waiting for an elusive client in a swanky lobby and was, literally, assaulted with a Christmas tree. And, though that didn’t seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things, with the employee who was tasked with decorating it.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Jyn Erso & Leia Organa
Comments: 30
Kudos: 102





	Office Decoration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SerStolas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/gifts).



> honestly i will change this title as soon as i can it's the worst. And I tried to squeeze that cat in there way too hard but my giftee mentioned it and also CATS!

Cassian’s life up to this point hadn’t exactly been _easy_ , by whatever definition of the word. The people in his life didn’t know much about that and he liked to keep it that way, but sometimes, he accidentally gave them an inkling of the violence in his past. Mostly by forgetting to feign surprise or shock when there was any sudden danger – he’d just seen too much of it. Even in his current job – hell, he’d been held at gunpoint at least twice, there’d been that one psycho with the baseball bat, he had received at least five bomb threats (and two bombs, though luckily it had turned out the people who’d sent them weren’t terribly gifted where it came to engineering). Then there was the time he and Kay got wrapped up in that car accident with the drunk taxi driver and everyone was horrified because Cassian was just… fine. He’d broken a leg, sure, that hadn’t been fun, but he had two of those after all and one was still good, right, and it wasn’t like he’d never seen his own blood before. He still wasn’t entirely sure why they all thought he _shouldn’t_ have driven to the hospital himself.

All of this being a long-winded way of saying that Cassian didn’t think there were a lot of ways to surprise him with violence anymore.

Until he was waiting for an elusive client in a swanky lobby and was, literally, assaulted with a Christmas tree. And, though that didn’t seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things, with the employee who was tasked with decorating it.

It was late on a Saturday evening and the enormous office building was as good as deserted. All the windows were dark – except for the premises on the seventeenth floor, of course, because what client of his would have reasonable working hours?

Like most of his clients, Monica Mothma was CEO of a well-intended and catastrophically led non-profit and, like him, could probably do with three more hours in a day and fifteen more employees than she had. Which was probably how she’d got herself into a lawsuit in Mexico in the first place. When he got to the premises, there wasn’t another soul in sight – there was a light on behind the frosted glass door that had Mothma’s name embossed on it; the only other light source was a pile of plugged-in fairy lights twinkling next to the enormous pine tree in the lobby. The tree had clearly just been moved in – it looked dangerously lopsided and there were needles scattered all over the polished tiles. The bottommost branches had already been decked out with lights and someone had stuck a handful of large baubles on some of the higher branches. Cassian tugged his scarf loose and frowned at the baubles. Those were just an accident waiting to happen. Who would put those up before the lights, you were just going to knock them down again…

He shook his head and turned towards the golden light from the office next door, wondering if he should knock. Behind him, he could hear a door open, probably whoever was decorating the tree. He had just decided to ask the employee if Mothma was expecting him when there was a lightning-fast string of curses, then a bright clattering sound (that he later concluded were the ornaments crashing down as the tree tilted), then – “G _et out of the way!”_

Before he got a chance to ask what ‘the way’ was and which direction would get him out of it, he was buried underneath an avalanche of pine branches. His skull ringing from the impact on the tiles, he lay very still for the span of a few breaths, wondering what the _fuck_ just happened.

He wasn’t certain if he was seeing stars or if the fairy lights were still plugged in, but there was certainly _something_ twinkling through the branches.

“Fuck – _ow._ Shit.” The voice he’d heard cursing just seconds ago now came from somewhere to his left, then the tree shifted a little, presumably as the employee untangled herself from it. “Hey, are you – _ow!_ Damn it. Are you okay? Sir?”

He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. The lights were still there, but they had stopped moving. So it was probably fair to conclude those were fairy lights, then. That was a comfort.

“Hard to say,” he replied, trying to get a handle on one of the bigger branches to no avail. The trunk of the pine was pinning down his bad arm, which wasn’t helping. And really, the whole thing was just _so heavy_ and there was just… a lot of it.

“Can you move the tree? I… can’t,” he said through gritted teeth, limply shoving at the tree with his right arm.

“What do you _think_ I’m doing?”

“I don’t know what you’re doing, you dropped a tree on me, lady,” he bit back, still pushing. The weight on top of him shifted slightly to the left.

“I didn’t _mean_ to, there was a –“ Her voice trailed off, then the tree lifted a little more and she cursed again. “Do you see a cat?”

Cassian frowned up into the greenery and wondered if he’d lost his grasp on his second language when his head hit the ground. “A what?”

“A cat!”

He took a deep breath and shoved at the tree again, moving it a little this time. His arm was starting to shake. “A cat? Like… like the animal?”

“Yeah, the animal, a cat! Furry, grey little thing? You know, ears, whiskers? Tail?”

“Did you hit your head too?” He finally managed to lift the tree enough to wrestle his left arm free.

“No – I mean, yeah, but there was a – that’s why I knocked over the tree. I tripped over the damn cat.”

“We’re on the seventeeth floor,” Cassian muttered, searching for an angle that would work for his shoulder. “No way there was a cat.”

“Why would I make that up?”

 _Hell if I know,_ he thought, and almost laughed. This whole thing would probably be hysterically funny if he weren’t, well, pinned to the ground. By a fucking pine tree. In New York City. What were the odds?

He closed his hand around a branch, breath hissing through his teeth as he swatted down the old pain in his shoulder and the feeling of the pine needles digging into his palm. “Can you move the tree to the right on three?”

“Your right or mine?”

“Yours.”

“Yeah. One. Two. Three –“

With a final burst of effort, they managed to lift the pine enough for Cassian to roll out from underneath it. He brushed off an inexplicable number of needles from his coat, and shook more out of his hair as he got to his feet, slowly and stiffly, like an old man.

 _God,_ he felt like he’d gone ten rounds in a bareknuckle boxing match.

He rolled his bad shoulder and barely swallowed the whimper that rose up in his throat.

“You didn’t… like, break your arm, did you?”

He blinked away the veil of tears and finally got a look at his assailant. There were pine needles stuck in her faded, stretched-out knitted sweater and in her dark hair that was falling out of the ponytail in large strands. She didn’t look _concerned_ so much as vaguely irritated. Cassian caught himself nonsensically feeling guilty about inconveniencing her for a second.

“No, it, uh… it got fucked up in a – doesn’t matter. It’s fine.”

“Right. Well –“

Mothma’s office door opened and a tall woman with a flowy white scarf and a headset appeared in the door, one hand closed around the microphone.

“What was that noi- oh,” she said, frowning at the tree blocking her way out of the lobby. “Is everything alright?”

The other woman brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, grimacing slightly. “Um –“

“Yes, all good,” Cassian said mechanically, stitching a professional smile on his face. He wouldn’t vouch for how it looked after the day he’d had, but Mothma only gave him the briefest of glances, so it probably didn’t matter.

“Good. You’re –“

“Andor, ma’am. Leia Organa called me in to look into your legal dispute in Tijuana?”

“Yes, I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, can you give me ten more minutes?” she asked with an apologetic smile, gesturing to the headset with her free hand.

Cassian, who still felt more than a little dazed, was almost relieved to get a few more minutes to collect himself and remember the case. Or the legal code of Mexico. Or, like, his social security number.

Or why he was covering for the person who had just somehow dropped a very large plant on him.

“Sure.”

“Thank you,” Mothma said, throwing him a fleeting smile, and disappeared back behind the frosted glass door.

Cassian’s assailant picked another needle off her sweater, then turned back to the fallen tree with a sigh. Then she froze and turned back to look at him.

“You’re a lawyer?” she asked apprehensively.

“Not the kind that has time to sue you,” he said, even as it occurred to him that that should probably have been his knee-jerk reaction, anyway. “But, uh, free advice if someone ever does, I wouldn’t try the cat thing in court.”

She rolled her eyes. “Look. There’s this stray cat, and sometimes it sneaks into the stairway, someone’s feeding it…”

It somehow wasn’t the _worst_ flimsy excuse he’d ever heard, and she didn’t seem ready to drop it, so he decided he would.

“Whatever. I’ll give you a hand with that tree –“

“I don’t need help,” she cut him off, and he had to concede that while she wasn’t a particularly inventive liar, the tone was pretty convincing.

“It’s at least three metres tall.”

Her green eyes flared up at him in defiance. “So?”

“It’s twice your height,” he argued, biting back a smile.

“ _Rude_ ,” she said, but didn’t convince him she was actually offended. (And even if she had been, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. She was pretty short, twice her height was a generous estimate.)

He raised a brow at her. If she thought _he_ didn’t enjoy an argument – well, he didn’t really. But he supposed he’d acquired a taste in all those years of law school, and besides, he had time to kill. Or something.

“I have it on good authority that it’s kinda heavy.”

She shrugged, a would-be innocent smile on her lips now. “It’s all about leverage. I don’t need help.”

He sighed and decided not to point out that the key to leverage would be a long enough lever. “If I admit you could _technically_ do it on your own, can I help?”

She grabbed the trunk of the tree and lifted, showering the tiles with more pine needles. “Can you just make sure it doesn’t tip over the other way?”

“Catching the tree didn’t go great for me the first time,” Cassian pointed out and made sure to remain on the same side of the pine as her while they slowly but surely put the tree back into position.

“Don’t let go, see if it’s stable first,” she instructed in a tone that left no room for argument.

“Yes ma’am,” he muttered, slowly wiggling the tree in its foot, and didn’t realise he’d said that out loud until he caught her looking at him, brow raised.

He felt heat creeping up the back of his neck. _Oh God._

“Um. Remember how I… I hit my head pretty hard?”

“Yeah, okay,” she replied with a fleeting grin. “You get a pass.”

He returned his attention very pointedly to testing the stability one last time. “Seems fine,” he said, nodding towards the tree, and slowly let go. For a moment, they both stood still, eyeing the pine apprehensively, until it had convinced them both it wasn’t going to topple again. (Although in fairness, one couldn’t _really_ blame the tree for the first time.)

She pushed up the sleeves of her sweater dress past her elbows (that he realised wasn’t actually a dress but a very large sweater with the sleeves rolled up to fit her, likely a man’s old sweater. He tried very hard to convince himself he had no idea why he took note of that).

“Can you actually give me a hand with the lights?” she asked, frowning down at the heap of fairy lights underneath the tree.

“Sure.”

“Jyn, by the way,” she said as she pulled up random sections, trying to untangle them from the knotted mess they had invariably formed during the whole incident. “And, uh – sorry.”

He grinned, took a loop from her and laid it out on the floor. “Cassian. I’ve seen worse.”

“Not what I thought I’d hear from a lawyer.” She produced a stepladder from behind the lobby desk, climbed on it and motioned for him to hand her the lights.

“Not a fan of lawyers?”

She shrugged and threw a loop over the top of the tree. “Not really. But you’re the first I’ve hit with a tree.”

“I’m flattered.”

She threw him a look, shook her head and got to work positioning the lights on top of the branches. “I don’t think that’s the verb you were looking for.”

He smiled, nestled a string of lights underneath the branches and peered into the open box of ornaments on the desk.

“Do you have any more baubles?” he asked and nodded towards the silver and red debris at the foot of the tree. “I don’t think we can salvage those.”

She wrestled the last of the fairy lights over the topmost branches. “I think there are a couple more in the box. But I guess I’m gonna have to get some more on Monday.” She sighed and held out a hand. “Can you just hand me a couple small ones?”

He picked out a handful of baubles and passed them on to her. “Something tells me you didn’t volunteer for this,” he said, watching her listlessly distributing ornaments on the top branches.

“I’m not, like, the Grinch,” she protested, stepping off the ladder to inspect her work. “I just don’t really see who this tree is supposed to be for. Leia roped me into this.”

Cassian grinned. “She does that.”

“You know her well?”

“We met in college,” he explained, frowning up at the tree, then added a bauble on an empty branch. “Never really got the whole company Christmas thing, either.”

She nodded and went back for another handful of ornaments. “Well, if it pays me overtime,” she said with a shrug and got to work on the lower branches.

Mothma’s door opened before he got to reply. “Mr Andor? I’m so sorry about the delay, if you –“

“Of course,” he said, handing off the baubles in his hand to Jyn with an inexcusably bright smile he had absolutely no explanation for, brushed his hands off on his jeans and made his way into the office.

By the time he left Mothma’s office, the lobby was empty and dark except for the Christmas tree, sparsely decked out with mathematical precision. He was too tired to even muster much disappointment to find Jyn gone. But on the way out, he spotted one thing that did break through the exhaustion and his sore head and shoulder.

“Look at you,” he muttered, bending down to offer the shaggy black-and-white cat by the front door his hand to sniff. “Little devil,” he added with a grin as the cat nudged his fingers with its nose. “I could sue you for damages. Yeah, you’re not gonna pay for my pain meds, are you?”

The cat looked up at him with innocent green eyes, then gave a flick of the tail, gingerly stepped over the tip of his shoe and stalked off towards the dark stairwell.

-Leia Organa [15:32]

Hey Cassian told me you dropped a tree on  
him. There was probably a nicer way to get  
his attention, but should I give him your  
number?

-You [15:40]

Haha

-Leia Organa [15:44]

Just offering. I’m a good friend.

-You [16:01]

Wait, did he ask you for it?

-Leia Organa [16:05]

No, but he wouldn’t. Always said that was  
creepy.

-You [16:07]

k starting to like him

-Leia Organa [16:09]

You gave him a concussion. Coffee’s the least  
you can do.

-You [16:09]

he said he was fine!

-Leia Organa [16:13]

A few years ago he got hit by a car and said he  
was fine to drive to the hospital. Turned out he  
had a compound fracture in his leg. I had to  
help get the blood out of his car seat.

I can’t believe I haven’t tried to set you guys  
up now that I’m looking at this.

-You [16:14]

very funny. our lives cant all be as smooth  
sailing as yours

-Leia Organa [16:16]

The opposite of smooth sailing is not a yearly  
near-death experience Jyn.

I’m giving him your number. I’ll tell him you  
wanted to know he was okay.

-You [16:55]

oh my god you’re the worst

-Leia Organa [16:56]

You’re way too late to stop me and you  
knew that all along. You’re transparent as  
all hell Erso.

-Leia Organa [23:14]

Well?

-You [23:17]

Well what?

-Leia Organa [23:17]

Did he call??

-You [23:19]

Yes. Can I sleep now?

-Leia Organa [23:19]

No!! Will there be a date?

-You [23:22]

goodnight Leia

-Leia Organa [23:23]

So yes then. I’m so excited!!!

You can borrow my good pumps.


End file.
